Meeting News - September 21, 2009 - (Page 16)

Association Watch PCMA Pulls Plug On Nascent ‘Strategic Alliance’ With ACTE With the Association of Corpo- diligence process.” rate Travel Executives board seeking The ongoing saga stems from sevto reopen merger talks with the eral starts and stops in the associaNational Business Travel Associa- tions’ attempts to combine. After a tion, the Professionhandful of board al Convention Manmembers from each agement Association association earlier last month pulled this summer reached the plug on the an agreement that “strategic alliance” failed to get sufficient formed with ACTE votes from the ACTE in June. board, ACTE in the Citing ACTE’s weeks before NBTA’s attempt to merge annual International with NBTA—unsucConvention & Expocessful, thus far— sition in San Diego PCMA’s John Folks PCMA chairman countered with a proJohn Folks in a memo sent to the posal that it claimed could gain the PCMA board said, “PCMA has support of its board and internaceased its due diligence process and tional members. H will no longer pursue an alliance —Jay Boehmer with ACTE. PCMA still believes in the convergence of both business Association Forms To Boost travel and meetings and will continMedical Mtg. Credibility ue to create education that will address this for our members and Five meetings executives have others in the industry that may ben- formed an industry association that efit from it.” aims to increase the credibility of ACTE president Richard Crum medical meetings professionals by said of PCMA, “We let them know providing them with uniform eduabout our intention to reengage cation training, certification and with NBTA, and they made the networking. decision that they no longer wantBased in St. Louis with an office in ed to continue in the pursuit of the Beijing, the International Medical alliance.” Meeting Professionals Association is ACTE and PCMA in June had the brainchild of founding memannounced the strategic alliance, bers Pat Schaumann, president of though officials stressed each asso- Meeting IQ; Professional Meeting ciation would remain independent Planners Network chairman James entities with separate boards and Montague; Image Technologies vice staffs, but would cooperate on joint president David Gillette; China member benefits, education, Connect president Henry Wu; and research and collocation of events. Marissa Wolfard, director of meetMeanwhile, NBTA in a memo ings at Meeting IQ, who will serve as last month said that merger discus- IMMPA’s executive director. sions with ACTE have yet to start, The group’s main objective is to claiming the ACTE board “has create a viable medical meeting refused to enter the financial due planner certification that’s connect16 MeetingNews September 21, 2009 ed to a major university medical school. Other goals, it said, are to build an online community for medical meeting planners, complete with blogs, forums, chat rooms, threaded discussions and Webinars; to create a referral center highlighting credible medical meeting suppliers; and to host an annual conference for medical meeting planners. IMMPA officially will launch on Nov. 2 in Kansas City, Mo., in conjunction with the Missouri Meetings and Events Expo. H —Matt Alderton 415 Attain Certified Meeting Professional Designation The Convention Industry Council, which awards the certification, announced late last month that 415 meeting professionals passed the July Certified Meeting Professional exam, adding to the more than 14,000 that have attained the certification. The next North American exam will be held on Jan. 9, 2010, in 12 U.S. cities, Ottawa and Johannesburg, South Africa. Test applications are due Oct. 28. The exam also will be administered Feb. 20, 2010, at Meeting Professionals International’s MeetDifferent event in Cancun, the first time the test will be administered in Latin America. The exam also will be held in Johannesburg, Rome, Singapore and South Korea. H —Seth Harris Survey: Less Association Meetings Travel In 2010 Most association members expect to travel less in the next 12 months as travel budgets slim, virtual meetings participation rises and interest in attending multiday tradeshows and other events wanes, according to a survey of 7,000 members from 77 associations released last month by The American Society of Association Executives & The Center for Association Leadership. The study was released at ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meeting & Exposition in Toronto, which drew 4,901 attendees, including 2,183 association executives. The summer survey is the second phase of ASAE & The Center’s “Impact Study: Beliefs, Behaviors and Attitudes in Response to The Economy,” which included a similar survey this past winter. According to the survey, 56 percent of respondents said their travel budgets have been cut, and 39 percent of respondents said they expect to travel more miles in the next 12 months. As an effect of the flat or decreased travel among respondents, participation in such online meetings as training events has increased to about 36 percent, up from about 30 percent of respondents in the winter survey. However, in-person still is the dominant meeting method, as more than 39 percent said they participate in both in-person and virtual meetings and 35 percent of members exclusively meet face-to-face. Just 6.3 percent only meet virtually. There also is downward pressure on multiday event attendance. Sixty-four percent of respondents said they are unsure or are not going to attend a multiday tradeshow, up from 59 percent in the winter survey. Seventy percent said they are unsure or will not attend a multiday education event. H —Seth Harris www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meeting News - September 21, 2009

Meeting News - September 21, 2009

Contents
Pricing Forecast
Newsmaker
Meetings Spotlight
Event Profile

Meeting News - September 21, 2009

Meeting News - September 21, 2009 -

Meeting News - September 21, 2009

(Page Cover1)
Meeting News - September 21, 2009 -

Meeting News - September 21, 2009